Plant-based Vaccines

Plant-based vaccines are recombinant protein subunit vaccines. Ideally, the choice of plant species used to produce the selected antigen should allow for oral drug delivery in the form of an edible vaccine. To date, the most advanced human vaccine projects have successfully completed phase I clinical trials, and animal vaccine projects have given promising data in early phase trials targeting specific animal species.

The plant-based vaccine production method works by isolating a specific antigen protein, one that triggers a human immune response from the targeted virus. A gene from the protein is transferred to bacteria, which are then used to “infect” plant cells. The plants then start producing the exact protein that will be used for vaccinations. The flexibility of the plant expressed vaccine system, combined with its low cost and ability to massively scale may provide vaccine protection not only to citizens of the United States, but to many parts of the world that cannot currently afford vaccines. Other uses of plant expressed vaccines including the successful creation of edible bananas that protect against the Norwalk virus.